I've been in the Big City for the past few days - New York City to you. Me and Alex decided we should go and see Boo's mom, so Oom and Boo had to drive us. We had a few parties with various folks, caught some of the cat society, and I took a few exploratory walks in Queens. Here's me taking my first steps into the garden outside the house.
New York City is big and stinky. But there are some cool places there and some really big, old and venerable trees. There's a nice patch of woods near where Boo grew up called Forest Park, and, guess what, there's a forest there. It surprised me so much to see these trees in the middle of the big city that I forgot to climb them. Oom , Boo, and the Boy went to the tree park to scope it out for me...I went later. But here's a bad pic of the Pine Forest in it that Oom took with her talking box.
I bet if I spent more time in the Big City, I'd come to appreciate what it could offer an intelligent, furry guy like me. But I'm a country cat from the hills of Wisconsin, and I was very glad to get back to my new home in the mountains and the sound of my tumbling brook.
All during this trip I was thinking about how it was good to get out of one's known surroundings - geographically and, perhaps even more importantly, emotionally and intellectually. You gotta get out of your box.
For a human, I think this is a tricky concept. For a cat, it's a bit more practical...and graphic. Us indoor cats, we have litter boxes. Our litter box is our castle...even if we share it with other kitties, it's a place we come to rely on. It is oddly comforting to know your litter box is there waiting for you. Indeed, some cats, a bit less intrepid than me, get so attached to the box that, for them, it becomes a haven. If things get downright scary - a big move, a profoundly unsettling event in the house - they literally can't get out of the box.
Get outta the box.
It's the end of another human year. Cats don't observe and count these human space-time markers, we go with a seasonal, sun and moon approach, but, nevertheless, we sense the importance of this night.
My New Human Year wish for all of you is that you have many chances to think and live outside of your box. I hope you grow, learn new things, and meet new people and critters that become your friends for life. And I hope they challenge you and bring whole new worlds of possibility. Hopefully, while you're out of your box exploring, someone will clean it for you too.
Happy New Year!
